Mobile phones - Send the right signal

Mobile phones, like cars and a good broadband service, are staples of modern life, so the prospect of swathes of the country being left without a good mobile signal hardly bears thinking about.

ComReg, the telecommunications regulator, has been warned that rural mobile phone users might lose their phone signal as a consequence of a proposed auction of mobile facilities next month.

The regulator has been told that unless a universal service obligation, which would protect countrywide coverage, is made mandatory then some customers would be left isolated without a signal. Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte should immediately rule out any such possibility.